The present invention relates to a method and arrangement for producing rotationally symmetric, nonspherical, optical images and elements.
Such an optical element may be a disk on which information is recorded in the form of diffraction or interference patterns by optical arrangements. The uses of such non-spherical optical elements are gaining increasing importance in modern coherent and incoherent optics. Applications range from simple exposure optics for pattern correction in imaging systems, to sophisticated coherent-optic analog computers for special mathematical functions and transformations.
The production of holograms is another important application. In reconstructing wavefronts by reading a hologram, one can in principle replace optical elements for producing particular light waves with a corresponding hologram. The production of a hologram presupposes the existence of the desired wavefront pattern, so that the optical element must already be on hand.
The production of holograms requires a very accurate optical technique and apparatus. The intervals of distance between wavefront peaks are very important for the accurate recording and reading-out of a hologram. Computer synthesis of hologram patterns is just one very accurate, though very expensive, method for production of high quality holograms, as an alternative to the usual technique of glass optics.